Category Archives: Things I Love Thursday

Things I Love Thursday

Every week, I write my list of things that have made me happy in the past week. This week I am particularly grateful for:

♥ Some of my friends who have been giving me the most valuable support for the past several months. This is my thank you for asking after me even when I say I’m fine.

♥ I am proud of myself for confronting one of my biggest fears in life this past weekend. I won.

♥ Getting a week off from work while my parents are here. It’s a much needed breather. (Thanks!)

♥ Pictures like this:

may your hope not be hidden

(Secret: Sometimes I write messages on fogged-up windows and in other places that no one is ever likely to look just in case someone happens to blow their breath on that particular pane of glass. I like to remind myself that beauty can be found in the unexpected, and it exists even when no one knows about it.)

♥ Finding a new warm spot where I can just curl up and read under the filtered sunlight.

♥ Music that gets you through the hard times and mundane days — Sara Bareilles’s ‘Let the Rain’ has been particularly good to me as of late.

Have a lovely Thursday!

Things I Love Thursday

On a less cross note than my last post, my weekly list of reasons to smile:

♥ My mother is in town and we’ve been having dinner together as a family for the last few days. My father is joining us tomorrow and I can’t wait to have all of us in the same house again.

Hyperbole and a Half is a hilarious comic blog that’s been around for a while but which I’ve only just discovered. Favourite posts so far are ‘Dog’, ‘Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving’ and ‘How a Fish Almost Destroyed My Childhood’. Check them out for a laugh! (Thanks for the recommendation, Dan!)

♥ The beautiful autumn weather we’ve been having lately.

♥ Started helping children learn to read last week and love it. Six-year-olds are adorable.

♥ While I haven’t watched many musicals, a great love of mine is Les Misérables, and one of my favourite performances is the finale of the 10th Anniversary Concert:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpkTgMbhRU]

 
By the way, if you’re around the Student Union Building tomorrow, check out the Speakeasy art project/message board that will be going on in the South Concourse from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm (as part of Thrive Week). There will be lots of smiles, colour and a tree, and my volunteers promise it will be lots of fun!

Things I Love Thursday

This is a week for the love of the purely domestic. As it turns out, the simplest things are also some of the happiest:

♥ The smell and feel of clean, warm laundry.

♥ The pleasant surprise when I go to clean the lint out of a dryer before I use it to find that the previous user has already done it!

♥ My vegetable peeler from Daiso. You don’t remember how useful these things are until you live with just a knife for a whole year. (Admittedly, I got a little overexcited while peeling my potatoes and probably wasted as much as usual. But no more.)

♥ Other highly useful items purchased from Daiso and IKEA lately: my can opener, dish towels, bath rug, new lamp, cutlery, mugs, plates and bowls. I have enough dishes for four whole people, not just one!

♥ My brother’s fantastic friend who brought 煎饼果子 to the Thanksgiving potluck on Saturday. A Tianjin specialty with no translation that I know of, I never thought I’d eat it anywhere outside of, well, Tianjin.

♥ People who ask for second helpings of something I cooked/baked. Actually, I also quite liked my mac and cheese and wish I’d kept a couple of banana chocolate chip muffins.

♥ People who feed me. Thanks for the delicious turkey dinner on Sunday, Dan!

♥ Heartfelt thanks also go out to my friends who willingly crammed themselves made themselves cosy in my studio just so I could cross off #41 on my Day Zero list. Your food and company were both delectable.

Have a happy weekend!

Things I Love Thursday

Thanksgiving weekend is almost upon us and I actually have plans this year! Big smiles all around. As well for:

♥ Last Thursday, Slam UBC had its first poetry slam of the year at Simply French Café on West 10th and Alma (a unique little place run by a delightful family). Music + spoken word + hot chocolate = love.

♥ There’s a single golden tree outside my window that is slowly ripening into its full fire. (Mixed metaphors for the win.)

♥ Over the summer, I was at the Vancouver Art Gallery with a friend and was given a promo to the Keg ($40 steak meal for 2). My brother and I ran off to use it on Monday. Hurray for unexpected deals!

♥ Speaking of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Tuesday evening entry by donations are the way to go for poor, scrimping students (5-9 pm).

♥ While I’m not a fan of Safeway produce, I do enjoy their Customer Appreciation Days on the first Tuesday of every month (10% off all purchases of $35 or more). Hello, 5kg bag of flour for $5!

♥ This is one of my favourite pictures. The coolest thing is that I once saw an alley in Dieppe, France, that was a bit like this (though not as awesome), with hoops and toys and random things strung out along lines above the courtyard.

Things I Love Thursday

Chose this icon just because I think it’s beautiful. Other things that have made me smile in the last week:

♥ Walking through puddles in the rainboots I got last year is still something sort of wondrous and delightful.

♥ Work is paying off! Feedback for the training weekends is turning out to be mostly positive — very much so, in fact.

♥ Ever heard of growing a bridge? Check this out!

♥ The free swing lessons offered by UBC Swing Kids on Tuesday night were such a great destressor. (If you’re interested, they offer classes on Thursday nights beginning next week, and AMS Minischool offers two classes Tuesday evenings.)

♥ My Musqueam language class is so much fun — we played Charades last night.

♥ Finally, an old, favourite clip of mine done by Rob Paravonian that always cheers me up on down days:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM]